Truck Accidents

An 18-wheeler at highway speed carries up to 80,000 pounds. Your car weighs about 4,000. When a fully loaded commercial truck hits a passenger vehicle, the physics are catastrophic. Survivors face shattered bones, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, amputations, and burns. Many do not survive at all.

Houston sits at the center of the largest freight network in the South. The Port of Houston is the busiest port in the country by tonnage. Thousands of tractor-trailers move through Harris County every day on I-10, I-45, I-69, and Beltway 8 — hauling shipping containers, petrochemicals, construction materials, and consumer goods. That volume means more trucks on our roads, more fatigued drivers behind the wheel, and more deadly collisions.

I am Michelle Acosta, and I handle truck accident cases myself. Not a paralegal. Not a call center. I personally investigate the crash, identify every liable party, preserve the evidence before it disappears, and build the case for trial. Trucking companies and their insurers have teams of lawyers working for them within hours of a crash. You need someone fighting for you just as hard.

Why Truck Accidents Are Different from Car Accidents

Truck accident cases are fundamentally more complex than a standard car crash. The stakes are higher, the injuries are worse, the evidence is more technical, and the defendants have more money and more lawyers. Here is what makes these cases different:

Federal regulations apply. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) imposes strict rules on commercial carriers that do not apply to regular drivers. These include hours-of-service limits that cap driving time at 11 hours per shift after 10 consecutive hours off duty. They include mandatory pre-trip inspections, weight limits, cargo securement standards, drug and alcohol testing requirements, and electronic logging device (ELD) mandates. When a trucking company or driver violates these regulations, that violation becomes powerful evidence of negligence.

Multiple parties can be liable. In a car accident, you typically have one at-fault driver and one insurance policy. Truck accidents can involve:

• The truck driver — for fatigue, distraction, impairment, speeding, or failure to follow safety protocols
• The trucking company — for negligent hiring, inadequate training, pressure to violate hours-of-service rules, or failure to maintain the vehicle
• The freight broker — for hiring an unqualified carrier to move the load
• The cargo loading company — for improper loading or securement that caused the truck to become unstable
• The truck or parts manufacturer — for defective brakes, tires, or other components that contributed to the crash
• The maintenance company — for negligent repairs or failure to identify critical mechanical problems

Identifying every responsible party matters because it expands the pool of insurance coverage available to compensate you. A single trucking company may carry $1 million to $5 million in liability coverage. When multiple parties are liable, the total available coverage can be significantly higher.

Evidence Disappears Fast — You Need to Act Quickly

Trucking companies know they are exposed after a serious crash. Many of them deploy rapid response teams — sometimes called "spoliation squads" — to the accident scene within hours. Their job is to document the scene from the company's perspective, talk to witnesses before you do, and begin building a defense.

Meanwhile, critical evidence is disappearing:

The black box (ECM/EDR). Most commercial trucks have an electronic control module that records speed, braking, RPM, throttle position, and other data in the seconds before a crash. This data can prove the driver was speeding, failed to brake, or was driving erratically. But trucking companies are not required to preserve this data indefinitely. If you do not send a spoliation letter demanding preservation quickly, this evidence can be overwritten or lost.

ELD and hours-of-service logs. Electronic logging devices track the driver's hours on the road. These records can prove the driver exceeded legal driving limits and was fatigued at the time of the crash. Carriers are only required to retain these records for six months.

Driver qualification files. These include the driver's CDL records, drug test results, training certifications, and employment history. They can reveal a pattern of violations or a company that hired a driver it knew was unqualified.

Surveillance footage and dashcam video. Nearby businesses, traffic cameras, and the truck's own dashcam may have captured the collision. This footage gets overwritten on short cycles — sometimes as quickly as 48 to 72 hours.

I send preservation demands immediately when I take a truck accident case. Before the trucking company can destroy or "lose" evidence, I make sure they know they have a legal obligation to keep it.

Houston: A Trucking Hub with Deadly Consequences

Houston is not just a city with trucks passing through. It is the epicenter of commercial freight in the Gulf Coast region. The Port of Houston moves more foreign tonnage than any other U.S. port. The Texas Medical Center, petrochemical plants along the Ship Channel, and the energy sector all generate constant heavy truck traffic.

The I-10 corridor between Houston and San Antonio is one of the highest-volume trucking routes in the nation. I-45 between Houston and Dallas carries massive commercial traffic. The Beltway 8 / Sam Houston Tollway connects industrial districts, distribution centers, and port facilities, and it sees a relentless stream of 18-wheelers at all hours.

This is not an accident-prone city by chance. The infrastructure was not built for this volume, the enforcement is stretched thin, and the pressure on drivers to deliver on time leads to corner-cutting that costs lives.

Injuries in Truck Accidents

The size and weight disparity between an 18-wheeler and a passenger vehicle means truck accident injuries are almost always severe. I have represented clients with:

• Traumatic brain injuries ranging from concussions to permanent cognitive impairment
• Spinal cord injuries and paralysis
• Multiple fractures requiring surgery and hardware implantation
• Crush injuries and amputations
• Severe burns from fuel fires or chemical spills
• Internal organ damage
• PTSD and lasting psychological trauma

These injuries change lives permanently. The cost of future medical care alone — surgeries, rehabilitation, home modifications, assistive devices, life care planning — can reach into the millions. Lost earning capacity for someone who can never return to their previous occupation adds millions more. And the pain, the loss of independence, the impact on your family — those damages are real and they are compensable under Texas law.

How I Handle Truck Accident Cases

I treat every truck accident case like it is going to trial. That means:

I personally investigate the crash. I review the police report, the FMCSA carrier safety records, the driver's qualification file, the ELD data, and the black box data. I hire accident reconstruction experts when the physics of the crash are in dispute. I retain biomechanical engineers to connect the forces involved to the specific injuries my client suffered.

I identify every liable party and every available insurance policy. Trucking companies structure their operations to shield assets — using shell companies, independent contractor agreements, and layered corporate entities. I know how to trace through those structures and find the responsible parties.

I do not settle cheap. Insurance companies for trucking companies carry large policies because they know the exposure is enormous. But they will still lowball if they think the lawyer on the other side will not go to trial. I have won a $56 million verdict in Harris County. When I tell a trucking company's insurer that I am prepared to try the case, they know I mean it.

Damages in a Truck Accident Case

Because of the severity of injuries in truck crashes, the damages in these cases are among the highest in personal injury law. Texas does not cap damages in truck accident cases. You can recover:

• All past and future medical expenses — emergency airlift, trauma surgery, ICU stays, rehabilitation, prosthetics, home health care, and life care planning costs
• Lost wages and lost earning capacity — many truck accident survivors cannot return to their previous occupation, or cannot work at all
• Pain and suffering — the physical pain of catastrophic injuries, ongoing discomfort from hardware, phantom limb pain, and chronic conditions
• Mental anguish — PTSD, nightmares, anxiety, depression, and the psychological weight of permanent disability
• Disfigurement — burn scars, amputation, surgical scars, and visible physical changes
• Loss of enjoyment of life — when you can no longer do the things that defined your life before the crash
• Punitive damages — available when the trucking company acted with gross negligence or conscious disregard for safety

The total value of a truck accident case depends on the severity of injuries, the strength of the liability evidence, the number of responsible parties, and the available insurance coverage. But I can tell you this: these cases are worth significantly more than most people realize, and the trucking company's insurer is counting on you not knowing that.

Why Michelle Acosta Law

I am a Gerry Spence Method trained trial lawyer, recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star, and named among the Top 25 Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers in Texas. Before I became a trial attorney, I served as General Counsel overseeing 1,800 employees across 15 states. I understand how corporations operate, how they manage risk, and how they try to avoid accountability. That background gives me an edge in cases against trucking companies and their corporate parents.

I am fluent in Spanish and serve Houston's diverse communities directly, without interpreters or language barriers.

If you or someone you love was hurt in a truck accident, do not wait. Evidence is disappearing. Call me at (713) 933-3300 or request a free consultation today. There is no fee unless we recover for you.